Upbeat Prebble goes upmarket

By Nick Perry

Act went to new heights in its election campaign yesterday as leader Richard Prebble pressed the flesh on the Auckland waterfront.

"We're going for every vote we can get," he bellowed while shaking the hand of stilt-walker Mike Main.

Mr Prebble was in an ebullient mood as he launched the party's economic policy in that rich man's playground, the American Express NZ Cup Village.

However, Auckland anti-Metrowater campaigners The Water Pressure Group could have thought the handshake appropriate given that Main was dressed as a futuristic Grim Reaper.

The group believes that Act will privatise the water supply if it forms the next government with the National Party.

Group members were not allowed inside the Act meeting, held in an exclusive corporate chalet, but hecklers later accosted both Mr Prebble and aide Reuben Chapple outside the upmarket eatery Viaduct Central, where the Act leader lunched.

Earlier, about 50 party faithful were treated to the Richard and Rodney show, with finance spokesman Rodney Hide providing a capable impersonation of a vaudeville performer.

He told jokes, laughed at his leader's quips and exhorted the audience to applaud in all the right places during Mr Prebble's speech.

The familiar targets of bureaucracy, red tape, taxation and the Employment Court were all addressed to choruses of "hear, hear" from the crowd.

Mr Prebble praised the development of the waterfront, saying it was becoming "one of the great harbours in the world."